Promotion of sustainable integrated pest management practices for an increased production

A total of ninety-three rice farmers within the three selected barangays [villages] (Gundaway, Sto. Tomas and San Ramon) of Quirino province [Philippines] were trained during the implementation of Farmers' Field School (FFS) Season-long Training on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for Pigmented Rice. This training was conducted to enhance farmers' knowledge and skills towards sustainable rice farming through community IPM. The IPM method envisions protecting the environment; reducing cost of production; and increasing farmers' net profit, thus uplifting famers' economic status. On-site learning was followed involving participants in the field activities, data gathering, observations and interpretation of results. Two varieties of pigmented rice (Red rice and Black rice) were established as field trails following the PalayCheck system and IPM. Farmers' variety served as control variable. The experiment was laid out following RCBD while means were compared using LSD to assess which growth and yield parameter differences between varieties are significant. The growth and yield of these pigmented rice varieties were initially assessed based on the number of days to mature after transplanting, number of tillers, length of panicle (cm), number of grains per panicle and yield (tons/ha). The results of field trails were compared with existing farmers' practice. Across all sites, Red rice was the earliest to mature at 79 DAT, produced the highest number of tillers (18/hill); longest panicles (21.17 cm); and the most number of seeds per panicle (113 grains/panicle). Farmers' variety produced the highest yield among the varieties tested (6.321.60 kg/ha) but insignificantly different to the yield of Red rice (6,282.50 kg/ha). It was observed that adopting IPM could reduce the cost of production by 12.06% compared to farmers' conventional rice farming. The data gathered and other observations can serve as baseline reference for farmers and future researches in promoting effective pest control strategies for pigmented rice in Quirino.